Sleep without drugs.

Disturbed sleep is a common problem, particularly among elderly people, and is usually treated with hypnotics. The side effects of longterm administration of hypnotic drugs are well known, but despite this there remains a substantial population of chronic users. These people can be helped to reduce their dependence on hypnotics through psychological techniques. A group of longterm users treated in this manner were shown to reduce their intake of hypnotics significantly more than a group of users who did not receive any psychological treatment. Furthermore, the treated patients did not experience any deterioration in their sleep patterns, and their subjective refreshment from sleep improved significantly.For the patient with sleep problems, psychological techniques are preferable to the longterm use of hypnotics both as a weaning-off agent and as an alternative to drugs.